PORTLAND, Mich. — Everyone's first instinct when they see a bee is to either kill it or swat it away because they are afraid of being stung.
But one local beekeeper says you shouldn't do that because bees are important to human life.
"Whenever I see it on Facebook or on social media that somebody found a hive and they just killed and you see dead bees all over the ground...it breaks my heart a little bit. That's a whole colony there," Kyle Brown of Browns Bee Service said.
Those bee colonies pollinate the crops that people eat. But experts are worried because more than 37 percent of bee species are declining rapidly. This is especially bad in Michigan which is second in the country in crop diversity.
"Without bees, ecosystems collapse. They are necessary for nature to continue by cross-pollinating plants and also for our AG sector to continue to grow and produce food for humans," Michigan Environmental Council Deputy Policy Director Sean Hammond said.
That's why Brown is offering to take care of beehives for free. He wants people to call him instead of killing the hives because of how important they are to the environment, and what happens when bees aren't around.
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